A few of you asked for some short chapter specials, so I decided to do so. I'm really glad to know that you guys enjoyed reading, so I'd be even more delighted to give you little one-shots of their lives.

Surprisingly, the Dragon Council had an immense amount of work to do. They had become the so-called rulers of the world, a position that was more forced upon them than anything else. The dragons had wanted no more than to protect their beloved planet, but it ended up giving them some unwanted duties, too.

Unsurprisingly, Erebus managed to avoid all of the work he had to do, thus leaving it to the others. Once in a blue moon, they were able to force him to come back to the Dragon Continent and actually do his work.

Much to his dismay, of course.

This was one of those times, Erebus found his mind being assaulted by the other members of the Dragon Council to come and complete what he was supposed to. He had been in the middle of a splendid nap, outside in the grassy lands spread out before his castle, he had fallen asleep while eating mana stones and reading some random book he had found in the library.

Erebus!

A sharp bark of a voice cut into his mind and shocked him out of his pleasant sleep.

Normally, the one who contacted him would be Rolut, this time it was the pompous Frize.

I would like you to come to the realization that the work with the betrayers who sold mana stones was not completed with their deaths. We still have been working on damage control.

Erebus didn’t respond, instead he rolled over and hoped that the voice would go away if he just ignored it. It didn’t, sadly. Frize continued to nag, soon his voice was accompanied by Midrn.

Scream.

Erebus wanted to scream. Get these annoyances out of his head! Was there any way to cut off this damned connection... it’d been thousands of years and he still had no idea how to make them shut up.

What was with that? Was there no off-switch? Couldn’t there be some distance to where it would no longer work?

I will do my part, Erebus finally snapped back at them. Get out of my head, I’ll head there soon.

His words were met by agreement.

Erebus stood and rotated his neck to get all of the kinks out.

A sigh.

He would tell the others that he would be leaving the castle for a short while, a very... short while. Like, he would literally be back in the blink of an eye.

Of course, he didn’t actually need to tell him. He was doing it for the pure sake of drawing out time as he knew they would undoubtedly whine and complain about him leaving them.

Good plan, he ought to give himself a pat on the back for that one.

Erebus walked through the grassy expanse, leisurely, may I add. If he had his way, it’d be another one thousand years before he went back to the Dragon Continent, and it certainly wouldn’t be for a Council meeting.

He let out another sigh.

So troublesome. Working was so troublesome.

Erebus entered his castle, traversed through the myriad of twisting hallways. How could he talk to them in a way that would take the longest amount of time? Sure, he was postponing the inevitable, but every second he spent doing nothing was a second very well spent in his opinion.

Yes, he would rather be bored than dealing with those politics and whatnot.

When he finally arrived his throne room, he stretched across the cold, stone seat so that his legs were thrown over the left arm and his head hung over the right.

Without having to call them, his minions came rushing into the room shortly after. All of them displaying equal expressions of worry.

If Erebus was seen going to his throne room, it normally meant one of three things: he was bored and thus in need of entertainment, he needed them to do something, and finally, the worst one, he was leaving.

The position he was sitting in lead them to believe it was the former.

Tear instantaneously offered herself as a means of entertainment and was just as quickly shot down by everyone in the vicinity.

“What is the matter, Lord Erebus?” Lilian asked. “Is something troubling you?”

“Something is always troubling me,” he answered.

Magnus let out a short gasp of pain, leaning against his brother Stone for support. How tragic... his master’s condition brought such unbridled sadness and pain into the demon’s heart!

“Alas...” Erebus trailed off. “I must leave you all for a time. Alone, I have to go to the Dragon Continent to deal with some things.”

It was Vyne’s turn to step forward. “Has something terrible happened? What is it, Lord Erebus? Surely, you can tell us.”

Ah, it wasn’t really terrible. He just didn’t feel like doing it. “More or less,” was the curt response instead.

Vyne’s face fell. “You cannot tell us? If so... we shall not press.”

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

“It is just some work I must attend to,” Erebus responded vaguely. He couldn’t let them give up now! His precious time-wasters, how could they let it go so easily. Why was it now that they finally decided to be reasonable?

“Such a thing is out of our control,” Lilian lamented.

Magnus nodded his head sadly. “Indeed, how troubling. If only we could help.”

You could help by talking more, you fools! Erebus shouted in his mind mentally.

“We will make sure another invasion like the previous will not happen again when you leave for the Dragon Continent,” Lilian spoke with great determination in her voice. “The humans have grown less rowdy, though, only a few rogues here and there try to fight us. I believe that it will be okay.”

“Yes, I’m counting on you.”

Silence filled the room.

“We’ll take our leave then,” Stone spoke after a few counts of the somewhat uncomfortable quiet.

Erebus waved them away, rather upset that they hadn’t been as dramatic as he was hoping.

Well, they had given him enough of a delay, he would have to fly a little bit slower... Ah, slackers had such a tough duty to fulfill. Sometimes, avoiding the work was more tedious than actually doing it.

Once again, Erebus exited the castle. He was embraced by a crying Tear at the last minute, she ended up leaving a wet spot on the shoulder of his tunic. Also, her hands had begun creeping low before he forcibly removed her.

He didn’t have the slightest ounce of desire for a kid.

Now in his true form, Erebus flew towards the Dragon Continent begrudgingly, already feeling exhausted from the thought of putting in extra effort.

It wasn’t fighting, so it wasn’t interesting.

It wasn’t a good book, so it wasn’t interesting.

It was paperwork about something he didn’t care about, so it wasn’t interesting.

In summary, it wasn’t interesting.

He flapped his wings in such indescribable sadness.

“Maybe Frize would have done the majority of it,” he wondered out loud. Yes, Frize was always reliable in these types of things. He and Erebus had always been different types, Erebus preferred to settle matters through violence, Frize enjoyed using words. Something thought Erebus was inefficient, just killing them would always prove to be easier and less of a hassle.

The sky faded from a pure blue to the dark red that signified the Dragon Continent. It was always like this, the dragons liked it this way. If they wanted, they could have any continent they truly desired, but they always stayed in the constant heat.

He loved his home, he really did, he just didn’t like the people in it.

His arrival was met by surprise, the guards who circled the sky showed the proper respects, but they were clearly appalled that he would come back twice within a year.

To them, it heralded that something serious was going on.

Erebus simply shrugged off their concern, though, it was completely unneeded and tiring.

He arrived at the Dragon Council’s abode, landing gently and shifting into his human form. At the platform, he was greeted by a less than amused-looking Frize.

“What took you so long?” the elder dragon questioned.

Erebus ignored the other’s words. “Where’s the work that needs to be done?”

“You’re actually going to do it?” Frize said, amazement filling his eyes. “And you won’t stop halfway?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

Frize frowned. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to give in so easily.”

Your lack of faith didn’t go unwarranted, Frize. It really didn’t.

“It was the only thing that’d make you shut up,” Erebus answered gruffly, frankly, he was not in a good mood at all. It had always been an unspoken pact between the two that Erebus would do the fighting, and Frize would do the work that came with it.

A rare smile graced Frize’s face. “Indeed. I was just so in love with the concept of seeing your face, not once or twice, but three times within such a short period of time,” he spoke sarcastically. “No, it was actually more work than I was expecting. I can’t do it all on my own. The others are swamped, too. It’s more of a mess than we had thought it was.”

“Hmm, I see,” Erebus said, his anger subsiding a little. Just a little. It was just Frize trying to get back at him like he had thought it was.

The two walked inside, heading towards Erebus’ very unused office that had undoubtedly not been occupied by its owner for a few decades.

Frize talked to Erebus about the situation, and Erebus listened to a certain extent.

Erebus pushed the doors that lead to his office open, only to be met by a very unpleasant surprise.

Frize had told him that there was some work for him to do, but “some” was a was a gross understand. Stacks, there were literally stacks of papers haphazardly piled onto Erebus’ desk. Actually, there was only a small space left for Erebus to read the documents.

“What is all of this...” Erebus said, absolute horror coloring his voice.

Frize patted his companion’s back. “Your work, there’s a little bit of mine in there, too. But I figured that you wouldn’t mind doing it.”

With a laugh that was far too happy, Frize patted Erebus’ back once again before walking out of the office.